Different Priorities

However, having the same goals for marketing and the channel is easier said than done for some organizations.

“I’ve been in those scenarios where my channel team and marketing didn’t have the same priorities, and that’s when you have a direct sales organization and a channel sales organization within the same company,” said Jolynn Antonacci, vice president of marketing at PPT Solutions. “That can happen. Naturally they’re going to have different priorities. And traditionally, I would say it’s gotten better over the years, but the priorities of direct sales corporate have always trumped that of channel.”

Antonacci said that there’s an even bigger point to be made. Does leadership truly want to adapt to a channel model? Or are they going to continuously question?

“Channel will offend people’s sensibilities; it’s just the way it is. And that’s not going to change,” she said.  

For Karla Roarty, vice president of channel sales at Logically, marketing officials need to listen to channel because “channel managers feet are in the streets and in the trenches,” she said.